If you had a clever and edgy punk/garage band back in the 1980s, and if that band got picked up by indie college radio stations, you were likely to get slapped with the label of “college rock.” Many great bands suffered this fate. Some, like R.E.M. and the B-52s, were able to grow beyond it. Others, like The Replacements, never really did.
I knew a girl who was so into The Replacements that she would only refer to them by the insider-fan name, “The Placemats.” She had great taste in music (and probably still does). I thank her, belatedly, for introducing me to one of their best songs, “Alec Chilton” (entitled, obviously, after another great indie rocker).
Rock on…
Ash Clifton, Writer 
The ‘Mats were great. So were Big Star and Alex Chilton. Has to be one of the coolest stories in rock music, Paul Westerberg writing this song about Alex while working with him, but too embarrassed to let Alex hear it. It turned out to be an all time great.
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I did not know that story. That’s so cool!!!
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